


James.

by queenie154



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 13:39:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1943235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenie154/pseuds/queenie154
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She couldn't tell him.For his own good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	James.

Katniss couldn’t believe what she was looking at.

She gaped down at the stick that she held between her legs. The stick that read positive.

Positive.

  
Was God playing a cruel trick on her?

  
Katniss had a reputation for being the purest girl in the district.

  
Unfortunately this no longer applied.

Actually, there hadn’t been a pregnant Seam teenager in at least three months. The last girl, a neighbour of Katniss, named Leevy, had died in childbirth.

Katniss’ stomach churned and she put a hand to her forehead, feeling for a temperature.

And then she remembered. She wasn’t sick. Just pregnant.

Pregnant.

Oh God, she thought. The entire district would think the baby is Gale’s.

In a way, she wished it was. Not half as many people would gossip, let alone care. She could easily get rid of it, her mother being medically trained. If the baby was Gale’s, she

could easily do this guilt free. Gale knows that she doesn’t want children.

But the baby is not Gale’s.

The baby belongs to the one and only, Peeta Mellark.

One of the richest boys in the district.

His family own the bakery in the posh part of the district.

And they would kill him if they found out he knocked up a Seam girl.

Because if Katniss was viewed as pure, Peeta’s parents would say Peeta is a priest, a total angel who has absolutely zero interest in girls or sex or fast cars or partying.

And if Peeta was disowned by his family, then he would have no college education, no income and his life would be ruined and he would eventually grow to resent her.

They were in a steady relationship. She cared about him. What kind of person would she be if she proved his mother right about Seam girls? Peeta would never hear the end of it.

She knew he would stand by her if he found out, he could even be happy.

Like her father had been when her mother had told him that Katniss was on the way.

But he had gotten bored. He had left them when Katniss was only four years old and Prim still a baby, in diapers.

No, she couldn’t tell him.

He would eventually forget all about her. Find a nice merchant girl and settle down with him.

Delly Cartwright had her eye on him for as long as Katniss could remember.

For his own good, she told herself repeatedly.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her mother freaked out when she heard. Naturally.

Katniss had refused to go to school, refused to risk seeing Peeta.

His texts were mounting up on her phone.

She lay on her bed, absentmindedly rubbing her small but significant bump when her mother stormed into her room, red faced and obviously having just arrived home from a shift at the hospital.

There was some stupid television show on and Katniss ignored the sounds of her mother pottering around the house.

“Katniss, what are these?” she exclaimed, waving around a small container of tablets.

Shit.

They were the folic acid tablets that she had picked up at the local pharmacy. Katniss hadn’t failed all her classes. She knew folic acid was compulsory for a baby’s

development and she couldn’t risk going to the doctor’s for prescribed tablets because it would get back to her mother. So she substituted on the cheap and hoped for the best.

It wasn’t a bad idea until her mother obviously decided to go snooping in the bathroom cabinet.

Katniss thought fast.

“I heard they’re good for headaches, and you know how unwell I’ve been lately” Katniss explained, stone faced.

She sat up on her bed.

Mrs Everdeen put her hands on her hips.

“Well Katniss, I did not know that “she spoke slowly.

“What I do know, is that they’re commonly taken by pregnant women and you’ve been sick an awful lot lately.”

Katniss swallowed.

She has three options.

Confess.

Break down, then confess.

Or lie blatantly.

“Well you see,” Katniss babbled. “I had no choice knew you would freak out.”

Mrs Everdeen began to nod. “I knew it! I knew as soon-“

“I’m dreadfully ill” Katniss blurted out.

“What?” Mrs Everdeen said in confusion.

“It’s a rare disease. Can’t seem to remember the name. It’s long. And Latin. And so completely dreadful. It causes vomiting and headaches and when I went to the doctor with my

symptoms, he recognised it straight away.” Katniss finished.

“Katniss, I am a nurse, try and remember the name!”

“Maybe it’s…”

Katniss thought fast. She tried to recall some non-life threatening diseases she had read about when she quizzed her mother from her nursing textbooks.

One came to mind. Short and simple.

“AML” Katniss spouted off.

Mrs Everdeen gasped and collapsed on the floor beside the bed.

“Katniss” she gasped. “If we don’t have long left, why wouldn’t you tell me that you have Acute Myeloid Leukaemia?”

Katniss began to panic.

Mrs Everdeen began to cry.

“If only it was anything else” Mrs Everdeen wept. “Katniss, you have a matter of months.”

She had a matter of months alright.

About six months until she had to force a baby out of her and give it a name and watch it grow up.

Katniss sat on the ground beside her mother and hugged her tightly.

A wave of guilt washed over her.

“Mom.” Katniss began to admit.

“I lied. I’m don’t have AML."

Mrs Everdeen sat up slowly, wiped her eyes and glared at Katniss.

“What do you mean, Katniss?”

“I don’t even know what that is. Mom, I’m pregnant.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
She was seven months pregnant and hating it. She felt like a balloon about to pop.

Unfortunately, the balloon won’t be popping for another two months.

Her mother had accepted it.

Prim was delighted. She spent hours every day talking about baby names, how excited she was to finally become an aunt.

She was following in her mother’s footsteps. She wanted to become a nurse, but for practise, she helped her mother sort out the various vitamins that the baby needed, she took Katniss’ blood pressure and she even wanted to deliver the baby.

Katniss decided that she was going to put her foot down there.

She had left school months ago but her mother was forcing her to return and finish her final exams after the baby was born.

Katniss wasn’t too impressed.

“But who’s going to mind the baby?”

“We’ll make it work.”

“Mom that is not a realistic answer. You will be at work. Prim will be at school. It’s my baby, it makes sense that I stay and look after it.”

“Well maybe if you told us who the father is, we could make sure that he helps out.”

That’s what always stumps Katniss. Her life would be so much easier if Peeta knew, but she had promised herself that he would let him live his life without her ruining it.

He was still texting her. All the time.

Katniss had known that he was persistent but she thought he would have given up after the first few months.

She had never told him where she lived and she wouldn’t let his walk her home.

Maybe, she knew deep down that it was never going to work out.

A merchant and a girl from the seam.

Please.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The baby was growing bigger inside her and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

She began to imagine what it might look like.

Will it have the natural seam look, take after Katniss and have dark skin with smoky grey eyes and jet black hair?

Or will it betray her secrecy and come out with blonde curls and bright blue eyes and dimples which appeared whenever it smiled?

She also wondered about the sex.

She knew which one she wanted.

She hadn’t voiced it out loud, her mother told her that the sex was a trivial thing and its health is what’s important. And Katniss knew that.

Of course, she wanted her baby to be healthy.

She remembered when Prim was born. She was adorable. Her parents couldn’t get enough of their new bundle of joy and although it made Katniss a little jealous, she pushed

it down deep inside her because she knew that Prim would grow up to be the best little sister in Panem.

And she was right.  
But, she also wanted a little boy. Despite loving Prim, she had grown up surrounded by women and she so desperately wanted a little chubby baby boy who she could teach

to hunt. She could bring him to the community playground and play on the green toy tractors with him.

She had a few names picked out, but nothing was set in stone, she kept telling herself.

It was just a name.

It was just a gender.

But it was what she would prefer.

She knew that Peeta would find out.

He’s not stupid.

He could surely count back nine months and figure out the likelihood that the baby was his.

Katniss planned to hide the baby from the world for a while and if any of the Mellarks ever questioned her, she would pass the baby off as younger that what it really was.

How hard could it be?

It turned out, explicably hard.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
She had been cooped up inside for so long, she was going crazy.

She decided to take a walk down to the Hob.

She was a bit peckish. Her mother was getting paid that night so there was very little food left in the house. But she suspected that Greasy Sae would pity her and give her a

bowl of soup on the house. Katniss normally would blanch at the thought of charity but Greasy Sae was practically family.

She was sitting on a stool, chatting to Greasy Sae. She was asking endless questions about the baby. Katniss didn’t mind her questions. Sae was harmless and although she knew

that she wouldn’t tell anyone, there was one question that bothered her.

“So” Sae lowered her voice, and bending in towards Katniss over the counter.

“Is it Gale’s?”

Katniss jolted back and gave Sae her cold stare reserved for her really bad moods.

“I don’t think I’m very hungry anymore” Katniss said coolly, hopping off the high stool with great difficulty.

She hadn’t spoken to Gale in weeks. He wasn’t happy about her pregnancy. In fact, he hated it.

He pestered her constantly about details of the conception, the father and what she was going to do when it actually arrived. Katniss pretended that she wasn’t

absolutely terrified and she knew exactly what she was going to do once the baby came along.

Although she didn’t.

She didn’t want to give it up for adoption. She loved it too much already.

But realistically, she would need a job to feed and care for it.

But the thought of leaving the baby with a stranger while she went and slogged her ass off for minimum wage drove her insane.

Truth was, she just wanted to be left alone. She was sick of people treating her like she didn’t have a clue what she was doing.

She maybe only turned seventeen but she wasn’t a complete fool and she certainly wasn’t going to be coerced into answer questions that she didn’t want to.

Especially for a bowl of vegetable soup.

“Katniss!” Sae called after her but Katniss just stormed off, straight into the broad chest of Peeta Mellark.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Katniss chewed her lip nervously as she made the tea in the kitchen.

She had left Peeta in the living room, where he was no doubt wondering what the hell was going on.

What was he doing in the Hob?

She placed a hand on her stomach and felt a strong kick in response.

“It’ll all be okay” she muttered, not quite sure if she was speaking to herself or her baby.

She walked back into the living room where Peeta had clearly been running his hand through his hair.

“Here’s your tea” she murmured, placing the porcelain cup in front of him on the small coffee table.

“Why didn’t you return my calls? Or even send a text? Katniss, I was so worried about you and I didn’t even know where you lived and my brothers told me to forget about you but

I couldn’t!”

Katniss shrugged. What was she supposed to say to that?

“What was I supposed to do?” Peeta repeated.

Katniss remained silent and hung her head.

“I mean, if you had told me that you were pregnant, things could have been so different! You’ve been alone this entire time!”

“I wasn’t alone” Katniss reminded him. “I had my mother and Prim and Sae and Gale-"

“What?” Peeta stood up and shook his head in disgust. “You told Gale about about our baby and not me?”

Katniss was annoyed by his presumptuous tone.

“I am allowed to tell who I want. Gale is my best friend, you know that. How could I have hid it from him? He needed to know.”

“And I didn’t need to know about my own baby?”

“And who said it’s your baby?” Katniss challenged him. “I mean, let’s face it, I am from the Seam, as your mother so kindly reminded me all those times.”

“So is it not mine?” Peeta asked. “Because, honestly Katniss, I don’t see why you have brought me here. You clearly don’t want to be with me and I don’t know whose baby that is,

but I don’t like the idea that you were cheating on me when that baby was conceived.”

Katniss felt totally defeated.

“That’s right” Peeta reminded her. “It wasn’t so long ago that we were a couple. It’s not that hard to do the math.”

“It’s not your baby” she said, turning her back to him. “So you can leave.”

“What?” Peeta asked, shocked .He was clearly expecting her to confess everything.

“You heard me,” Katniss said bitterly. “It’s not your baby.”

And she was right. It wasn’t his baby.

It was hers.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Giving birth was awful.

Truly painful.

She woke up with a start, immediately noticing her now seemingly flat stomach under her robe. She felt empty.

She recalled the labour. Prim hadn’t completed the procedure. She figured a trained nurse would be a better option. Prim could have plenty of practise on people she

didn’t know in the future.

It was back-breaking, really.

But a relief at the same time.

After nine long months, she just wanted to meet her baby.

She felt her first contraction at ten past three in the daytime. She called her mother straight away, who was at the hospital and her mother assured her that she would be

home soon to drive her to the hospital.

She pushed for five hours and thirty three minutes.

And fell asleep minutes after seeing her baby’s tiny body wrapped in a blanket.

The nurse rested the baby on her chest and she gasped in wonder at its little scrunched up face.

It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

“Congratulations” the nurse told her. “It’s a boy.”

A tear trickled down Katniss’ cheek. Then another. And another.

The nurse tried to remove the baby from her chest but Katniss clung to him.

“What’s wrong, dear?” the nurse asked, her voice full of sympathy.

“Just happy” Katniss tried to explain before bursting into tears.

“Maybe it’s time for a nap after this little guy gets a feed” the nurse suggested.

After the nurse showed Katniss how to attach the baby to her breast, she fell into a deep sleep full of dreams of babies and families and happiness.

She was almost sad to wake up.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She pushed him along in his pram along the willow trees in the meadow, where the plants had far overgrown and the sun shone down on her head.

He was perfect.

Five fingers and five toes.

And not an awful lot of Katniss in him at all.

His skin was pale.

His hair was that shade of blonde that came from just one family in the entire district.

His eyes were bright blue, with tiny, but noticeable, specks to grey in them, Katniss was delighted to see something to show that she was his mother.

She froze in surprise when she saw Peeta leaning against the biggest willow tree in the meadow.

“Congrats” he called over to her.

He began to stroll towards her and Katniss stood still.

He peeked into the pram, eyes widening in recognition as he took in the baby.

“Boy or girl?” he asked quietly.

Katniss couldn’t really blame him. The baby was only three weeks old and people often got confused about its gender.

“Boy” she informed him in a tone that matched his.

Peeta nodded.

“Listen Katniss,” Peeta began. “I know he’s mine. I’m not stupid, he even looks like me.”

Katniss cursed the baby’s good looks. She would never be able to convince him now,

“I understand if you still want to do this alone. But I still love you and I would do anything for this baby. I’ll obviously still give you financial help even if you don’t want people to

think I’m the father.”

“I just don’t want to be responsible for your life being ruined.” Katniss muttered.

Peeta’s brow furrowed and he reached out to rub her arm reassuringly.

“What do you mean, ruin my life?” Peeta’s voice cracked. “This would be the best thing that ever happened to me. Katniss, you have to realise that you’re everything to me.”

“If you’re going to be a part of his life,” Katniss said, her voice wavering. “You can’t tell your mother until you’re at least finished college. I can’t let her cut you off and you get

no education. I won’t be responsible for that.”

Peeta looked confused.

“Katniss, my mother left my family three months ago. She had enough. Couldn’t stick my dad and her three disappointing children. She met a new man and took off. We don’t

even know if she’s still in the country.”

Katniss gaped at him in shock.

“What?” she said incredulously.

“Seriously” he laughed.

“I see,” Katniss said. “So you’re in college?”

“Starting next semester in Panem University, studying engineering” Peeta said proudly, his smile widening.

“Just like you always wanted” Katniss said. She was in a bit of a daze.

Peeta pulled her in for a hug. She raised her arms to wrap them around him, appreciating the smell of cinnamon and baked goods.

She liked the way her chin fitted just right under his chin. She could even get used to his heavy footsteps.

He kissed the top of her head sweetly.

“I’m so happy that I have you back” he whispered.

“Me too” she said silently.

“I’ll never let you go again” he assured her.

He pulled away from the hug and stooped down to ruffle the baby’s downy blonde hair.

“Either of you” he cooed to the baby.

He continued cooing for a couple of minutes and Katniss could only stare in adoration for them both.

People were going to think she was the odd one out, Peeta and the baby were like twins.

He turned away and flashed a dazzling smile.

“What’s his name?” he asked.

“James. James Mellark.”

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------  
The once tiny baby was now six years old and was surprisingly the tallest boy in his class, which he was extremely proud about.  
“James” Katniss called from the kitchen.

“Time to come home.”

The little boy ignored her, having far too much fun with the other children to even consider going inside, even though it was a school night .

Katniss frowned at his disobedience.

“It’s only six o’clock” Peeta reasoned, from the small cornflower blue couch in the living room which was attached to the kitchen. “And it’s summer.”

Katniss called him again, and once again, she was ignored.

“I give up” she moaned. “He won’t come in and he’ll be exhausted in school tomorrow and those stupid teachers will completely blame me!”

Peeta stood up to wrap his arms around Katniss’ petite frame. He squeezed her tight.

“Since when do you care about what people think?” He murmured into her ear.

Katniss shrugged.

“Besides,”he began, bending his neck to nuzzle at her jaw. “We could use this time to…do other things.”

Katniss rounded on him, breaking free of his grasp.

“Peeta Mellark!”she accused, smiling. “Are you actually using our son’s bad behaviour as an excuse to have sex?”

“Would you love me if I was any different?” Peeta laughed and Katniss chuckled as his lips met hers.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. You can find me on tumblr at queenie154, come find me!


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